Groove Town
is an American traditionally-animated period comedy-adventure series created by Doug Langdale. The show is produced by Warner Bros. Animation, Film Roman, Sony Cartoon Studios and Sony Pictures Television. It premiered on WB Kids on September 5, 2020. The show's producer is Alan Zaslove. The series ran through a total of 3 seasons, spanned 90 episodes and a television film as the series finale. Sypnosis The series focuses on two best friends, a talking puppy, a girl, two kids and a talking woodpecker (set in the 1970s) are going through misadventures facing supervillians in everyday life. They even own the Groove Machine, a big van with a rainbow-gradient paintjob. Also, the show breaks the fourth wall with characters often talking to the audience and the narrator. Characters Main * Jack (voiced by Townsend Coleman) - The tall, long-haired and laid-back leader of the team. While he speaks modern slang like all young adults of the 70s, Richie and Debbie speak more normally in American English. He is one of the few able to drive. * Richie (voiced by Rob Paulsen) - The short and intelligent one of the team. He is also the voice of reason. * Al Bino (voiced by Charlie Adler) - A talking furry white puppy, who used to live in a pet store, is currently owned by Richie. His name is a word play on "albino". * Debbie (voiced by Rachael MacFarlane) - Jack's girlfriend in the series. She is also close friends with Richie and his pet dog, Al Bino. * Andy and Ashley (voiced by Max Charles and Ariel Winter) - Richie's 10-year old nephew and niece. They're most likely fraternal twins. Their mother is Richie's unnamed sister, who is never seen throughout the entire series. Ashley (in her off-screen adult form) is also the narrator of most episodes (in a simlar way to Adam Goldberg from The Goldbergs), usually starting with "As far back as I can remember....". * Carolina 'Carol' Woodpecker (voiced by Estelle Harris) - A shrill, impatient, accident-prone, sarcastic pink acorn woodpecker who lives with Jack, Richie and the gang. She serves as one of the comic reliefs in the show. Supporting * Prince Angel (voiced by Hal Sparks) - A prince who would rather hang out at the mall with his friends than rule a kingdom. He debuted in the second episode, "Knightly Hi-jinks". * Magiskull (voiced by Michael Bell) - A skeleton wizard who resembles Death. He is lucky enough to be an ally and friend of Jack, Richie and the gang and is also a rather clumsy sorcerer who usually wreaks havoc with his spells rather than being useful. His knowledge of magic and magical items, and most other things, surpasses the rest of the cast. He debuted in the second episode, "Knightly Hi-jinks". * Mildred 'Millie' Woodpecker (voiced by Andrea Martin) - Carol's sister. She is portrayed as a green acorn woodpecker and speaks in a high-pitched voice with a New York City accent. * Ronald (voiced by Frank Welker) - Debbie's strong and muscular yet bumbling older brother. He is two years older and a bit bigger than his sister. * Conrad (voiced by ) - One of Richie's childhood friends from school and is one of the characters in the supporting cast to wear glasses. He is an inventor/scientist and debuted in the tenth episode, "TBA". * Rita (voiced by Tress MacNeille) - Richie's girlfriend. She only appears in a few episodes. Antagonists * El Skullator '(voiced by Carlos Alazraqui) - Magiskull's evil twin. He also has a Mexican accent, similar to Speedy Gonzales from ''Looney Tunes. * 'Stella '(voiced by Sandy Fox) - A ghost of a flapper from the twenties that wants to turn the world back into the twenties. * '''Robber Raccoon (voiced by Frank Welker) - A raccoon burglar who frequently steals merchandise from the other characters. * Le Dragon de Violet (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) - Despite his French name and his giant size, he is the ultimate force of destruction. He is portrayed as a realistically-drawn purple dragon with red eyes. * Witch Mercurite (voiced by Andrea Martin) - An evil witch who plans to drain all of the Psychedelic Heroes' superpowers into her body in order to conquer the universe. * Krazy Clown (voiced by Paul Rugg) - A crazy, psychopathic clown with a high-pitched voice. * Princess Teriyaki and Queen Edon (voiced by and impersonating ) - Teriyaki is an evil sorceress princess who once dated Conrad, but he ended up dumping her. Edon is Teriyaki's mother and keeps on trying to teach Teriyaki to be more evil. Her father is good, making her half-evil. Voice Cast Main Voices *Townsend Coleman *Rob Paulsen *Charlie Adler *Rachael MacFarlane *Max Charles *Tress MacNeille *Estelle Harris *Hal Sparks *Michael Bell *Andrea Martin *Frank Welker * *Carlos Alazraqui *Sandy Fox *Kevin Michael Richardson * * *Ariel Winter Additional Voices *Jeff Bennett *Kath Soucie *Pat Musick *Noelle North *Cathy Cavadini *Elizabeth Daily *Joe Manganiello *Jack McBrayer *Demi Lovato *Jake Johnson *Rainn Wilson *Seth MacFarlane *Trey Parker *Matt Stone Episodes See List of episodes Tropes See /Tropes Production Development Background In early 2018, Langdale was watching That 70's Show and many other shows set in the 1970s. Thus, it has inspired him to create his next show, succeeding Disney's'' Dave the Barbarian''. Production didn't begin until January 2019. Originally, Andy and Ashley were supposed to be the major focus and was intended to be a mystery show, but Langdale scrapped it because he felt it would be too similar to Disney's Gravity Falls, so he decided to make Jack and Richie as the major focus and the show was revised to remove the serious mystery elements and change it to an action-adventure comedy, similar to his previous shows Earthworm Jim and Dave the Barbarian, with some elements from Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo ''mixed in. Kelly Asbury, director of Sony's ''Smurfs: The Lost Village was brought on board. Casting According to Langdale, Rob Dydrek (creator of Wild Grinders) originally auditioned for the role of Jack, but was turned down in favor of voice actor, Townsend Coleman, who worked on the original 1987 TMNT show. Rob Paulsen was originally intended to do Al Bino and Charlie Adler was to do Richie, but at the last minute, their roles were switched. Lisa Vischer (voice of VeggieTales' Junior Asparagus) originally did the role of Debbie during the audition and were the initial scratch tracks for the character before Rachael MacFarlane took the role. Tress MacNeille was intended to do both Andy and Ashley. But after hearing her audition, the producers felt it sounded too much like Andy Panda from Woody Woodpecker and Dot from Animaniacs, so Max Charles and Ariel Winter were each given the roles instead. Writing The show has a set team of writers, most notably Tim Hill, Henry Gilroy and Patrick A. Ventura (who worked there during the second season). Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park, wrote at least three episodes together, such as "Little Orphan Ashley", "Carol Magic" and "Al Bino Holmes and the Case of Mr. Wolf" (but with their trademark profanity and vulgar humor from their show edited out of the script to make it more family-friendly later on, by Langdale himself). Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein, creators of Drawn Together, both wrote the episode "Rubber Hose Madness", along with Patrick A. Ventura, which was the debut of Stella herself. Voices The characters are mostly cast with a mix of cartoon and celebrity voice artists. Animation Most of the animation is done exclusively at Rough Draft Korea. TMS Entertainment animated a few episodes in the second season, especially the ones directed by Patrick A. Ventura (who previously worked on What-A-Cartoon and Oh Yeah! Cartoons). Music The show's theme music and score is composed by Shawn Patterson, who previously worked on Disney's Dave the Barbarian. Spinoff See Psychedelic Heroes Trivia * Most of the characters have similarities in character designs. ** Jack, Richie, Al Bino, Debbie, Andy and Ashley's character designs are heavily inspired by Johan, a Smurf, Smoogle, Princess Savina, Snappy Smurfling and Sassette Smurfling (all from Johan and Peewit and The Smurfs). ** Carol's character design is similar to that of an . ** Prince Angel's design is similar to Tak Juju from Tak and the Power of Juju, except he has blond hair and peach skin. ** Conrad's design is based off of Brainy Smurf (also from The Smurfs). ** Princess Teriyaki and Queen Edon's character designs are based off Stormer and Pizazz from Jem and the Holograms. ** Rita's character design is similar to Smurfette (from The Smurfs), minus the cap. ** Witch Mercurite's character design is similar to Witch Hazel (from Looney Tunes). * The show is set in Los Angeles, California in the 1970s decade. Some episodes would have the characters appear as movie stars in Hollywood, the central region of Los Angeles. * Unlike other shows, the animation for the opening sequence of the show is done traditionally in-house with cel shading. The episodes in general are most likely outsourced to South Korea (Rough Draft Korea, Yeson Entertainment, AKOM Production Co.) and Taiwan (Wang Film Productions). * Most of the characters' voices have similarities to the ones from other shows. ** Jack's voice is similar to Gobo Fraggle from the animated version of Fraggle Rock, except deeper and a little gruff. ** Richie's voice is similar to that of Donatello from the 2012 reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. ** Al Bino's voice is similar to Natural 'Nat' Smurfling from the The Smurfs TV show, Spike the Dragon from G1 of My Little Pony and Cow from Cow and Chicken. ** Debbie's voice is similar to Hayley Smith from American Dad. ** Magiskull's voice is similar to Grouchy Smurf from the The Smurfs TV show. ** Robber Raccoon's voice is similar to the Raccoon from the U.S. Acres/''Orson's Farm'' segment from Season 4 of Garfield and Friends, Birthday Boy Roy. ** Ronald's voice is similar to Hefty Smurf from the The Smurfs TV show. ** Prince Angel's voice is similar to Tak Juju from Tak and the Power of Juju. ** Stella's voice is similar to Betty Boop. ** Le Dragon de Violet's voice is similar to The Anti-Fish from the Earthworm Jim TV show. ** Conrad's voice is similar to Brainy Smurf from Smurfs: The Lost Village. ** Both Princess Teriyaki and Queen Edon sound very similar to Princess Irmaplotz and Queen Zonthara from Disney's Dave the Barbarian. ** Rita's voice is similar to Daisy Duck from the Disney franchise. ** Andy and Ashley's voices are similar to Snappy Smurfling and Sassette Smurfling from The Smurfs ''TV show. ** Witch Mercurite's voice is similar to Queen Slug-for-a-Butt from the ''Earthworm Jim TV show. ** Krazy Clown's voice is similar to The Dark Lord Chuckles the Silly Piggy from Disney's Dave the Barbarian. 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